Death of Fr Frans van der Lugt: Greater love hath no man

Published: 10 April 2014

In a YouTube video posted earlier this year, an elderly man sits outside a simple grey brick house. Birds sing loudly as he addresses the camera in French. This is Fr Frans van der Lugt, appealing on behalf of the starving residents of Homs.

Fr van der Lugt’s murder is, first and foremost, an awful loss for the civilians still trapped in the besieged Old City of Homs. He successfully highlighted their suffering in a Western media that has grown tired of Syria. He also attended to their immediate needs. In February the Daily Telegraph reported that a Muslim charity gave Fr van der Lugt four kilos of flour a week, which he then turned into bread.

He gave half a loaf each to the enclave’s 30 neediest people. As a psychotherapist, he paid particular attention to the mentally broken. 'I try to help the mentally ill,' he said, 'not by analysing their problems, as the problems are obvious and there is no solution for them here. I listen to them and give as much food as I can.'

The death of Fr van der Lugt calls to mind that of Fr Christian de Chergé, the central figure in the film Of Gods and Men. In his last testament the French Trappist, murdered in Algeria in 1996, addressed his future killer as his 'friend of my final moment,' commending him 'to the God whose face I see in yours.'

Fr van der Lugt made a conscious decision to remain in Homs, refusing several opportunities to leave.